Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Your Art is History

As we know, the modern world divides quite neatly into what is privately owned, and what can be appropriated, broken up and sold for scrap. The latter honour has been the fate of a number of pieces commissioned, according to the chief executive of Historic England, "against a background of optimism, good intentions, civic values"; which in itself provides a good indication of precisely how expendable such works have become under the blithely boorish régime of the Bullingdon Club. Historic England is launching a campaign to raise awareness of sculptures melted down for scrap and friezes erased by developers; but quite aside from John Bull's famous artistic sensitivity, the national religion is likely to prove a formidable obstacle. Corporate fundamentalism allows no room for such strange socialistic monstrosities as public art; any more than it allows room for public transport, public parks, public libraries or public health.